Tag Archives: global collaboration

So you think you’re some kind of procurement genius? In this day and age, there ain’t no such thing and that’s ok!

We all like to think we’re geniuses, that we can single-handedly solve all the procurement problems of the world.

We now know that the concept of the ‘solo genius’ is largely a myth. True creativity comes from collaborative partnerships such as Jobs and Wozniak, Lennon and McCartney, or the Wright Brothers. Even the most famous ‘solo’ geniuses – Einstein, Newton, Mozart – didn’t operate in a vacuum, but built upon the work of countless others. Today, we’re lucky to live in a world where all the answers and ideas we need are only a click away.

Let’s face it, procurement’s most pressing issues (slavery, child labour, unsafe work practices, exploitation, neglect for the environment and copyright) are too big for any one person, or even any one company, to solve alone.

Even at the best of times, working in procurement can be a lonely place, even when we’re working as part of a team. You might be the only person managing your category in your company, in your industry, maybe even in your whole country!

Clambering out of Einstein’s basement

If you have a problem that you can’t fix and need some breakthrough thinking, don’t be like Einstein and barricade yourself in a basement waiting for genius to strike.

Remember that you are part of a vast, virtual, global procurement team full of millions of talented professionals with ideas – help is only a click away.

Get yourself out of isolation, onto the global playing field and ask the universe for inspiration.

Solving the world’s problems, together.

Over five thousand Procurious members visit our discussion board every month to share ideas and offer advice to their peers. Our blogs spark debate, with members feeding their own commentary and ideas into the global community.

We are still seeing the ripple effects of these events with high levels of member engagement and interaction within the community; the feeding back of vital intelligence on alternate sourcing, suppliers, freight, logistics, on-the-ground contacts and changing regulations.

The hurried and helpful responses to these challenges by the global procurious community has proven that many hands make light work of disruption.

It’s clear that we want to talk online about the issues affecting procurement and are keen to help each other. It would seem that global “team procurement” is alive and well – but are you part of the flow?

Leveraging the Power of 23,000

There are now 23,000 Procurious members across 145+ countries, all with different strengths, weaknesses and experiences. Somewhere, out there, is someone who has had the same experience as you and some wise words to share.

Leveraging the wisdom of the crowd is the beauty of social media. By building your online presence and contacts you can craft a network of thought-leaders, influencers, and experts around you, to provide fantastic ideas and insights.

Even if you have a truly unique problem, there will be someone who can provide a fresh perspective that creates a lightbulb moment for you.

Take the lead

As a successful leader, you don’t have to have all the answers – but you do need to have the best questions….and know who to ask for the answers!

Whichever business icon or “genius” you admire – whether it be Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Elon Musk………you know they are not the only person providing the brain power to conjure their vision, there are teams working day and night to deliver the dream.

Like me, you’re probably “blown away” (pardon the pun) by the rapid progress of the SpaceX program. But as you admire Elon’s vision, just remember this is not solo genius, no one talented employee finding all the answers – there have been thousands of people working over decades to get these game-changing rockets to the launch pad who have been collaborating globally online to solve a millions of small and large challenges on the journey to space.

It’s exactly the same story in procurement. Behind every apparent genius (aka Global CPO), there’s a team of procurement pros behind the scene helping come up with solutions. Even if you don’t have a real team helping you – you have a secret weapon – you can consult your global team of procurement buddies to help you find the answer.

Be the smartest guy in the room

To shockproof our profession and become the smartest guys in the room, we need to move out of our silos and work together.

Procurement needs to be ahead of the curve – to be agile, to be savvy and to be bold. We are the avengers, the rock stars, the movers and shakers negotiating the deals that guarantee supply, quality, cost, ethics and sustainability. But we can’t do it on our own.

When you’re next faced with a challenge or struggling with the beginnings of a great idea. Don’t just sit there. Do Something. Get online and ask questions. The answer is only a click away.

Alex Kleiner says that procurement organisations need to throw off their linear thinking to increase flexibility and collaboration.

At the Big Ideas Summit 2016, we challenged our thought leaders to share their Big Ideas for the future of procurement.

From ideas that have the potential to change the very nature of the procurement profession, to ones that got the assembled minds thinking about the profession’s impact outside of the organisation, the response we received was amazing.

Alex Kleiner, General Manager, EMEA at Coupa Software, says that organisations as a whole need to throw off their linear thinking and increase flexibility and fluidity.

This transition will allow organisations to eliminate barriers to collaboration, but also enable procurement to focus more on alternatives to savings, such as usability, people, or even lives saved!

Catch up with all the thought leadership and ours delegates’ Big Ideas from the 2016 Summit at the Procurious Learning Hub.

If you want to find out more about Big Ideas 2016, and what we have planned for 2017, you can visit our dedicated website!

If you like this (and you haven’t done so already) join Procurious for free today, and connect with over 15,500 like-minded procurement professionals from across the world.

From talent management, to ethics and transparency, there are some major challenges facing procurement in the current environment. But which is the biggest challenge?

When considering the potential issues and risks that procurement professionals need to be aware of in their day to day work, it’s difficult to single out one in particular requiring greater focus than the rest.

In fact, if you were to ask the question of what is the biggest challenge currently facing procurement, the chances are high that you would get a considerable number of topics listed. However, that is exactly what Deltabid did with a survey of over 500 procurement professionals. More on this shortly.

Blind Spots

During the Big Ideas Summit 2016, Procurious asked its delegates to tell us what they considered to be procurement’s blind spots, and major areas of risk, in the coming years. Our panel of experts highlighted these areas:

Too great a focus on savings

Dealing with the wider business

Talent attraction and management

A lack of ambition in procurement

Working with legal teams

A contributor to the Procurement Leaders blog commented that, “CPOs face one of the most complex roles in an organisation”, and highlighted skills required for the future including a focus on strategic relationships, management of global supply chain risk and use of big data.

At the 9th Annual Asia-Pacific CPO Forum, The Faculty will be discussing the need for procurement to leverage supplier-enabled innovation, and a focus for procurement on SRM in order to make this a reality.

And when you consider the prevalence of stories and news reports on sustainability and supply chain transparency, it seems we are reaching a point where not only can we not reach a consensus on what the biggest challenge is, but also facing a lack of understanding about how we tackle these challenges.

Making Progress?

The other issue to consider is whether or not the procurement profession is making progress dealing with its biggest challenges. A quick search reveals a number of articles from the past couple of years asking a similar question of procurement leaders, including this one from Spend Matters.

In it, the top 5 challenges for CPOs are highlighted, including mitigating spend creep, the visibility of realised savings, compliance, technology, and procurement skills and capabilities to deliver on strategies. Starting to sound familiar?

What procurement must do is set out to tackle these challenges, and actually make some progress on them, instead of moving on to the next thing. And also to realise that these challenges don’t go away – it’s going to be a continuous process.

Biggest Challenge

This circles back to being able to identify the biggest challenge facing the profession, and perhaps assessing an order for them to be in, and a plan of attack for meeting them head on. This is where Deltabid’s research can help.

A survey of over 500 procurement professionals found that the biggest challenge was supplier-related issues, including finding and qualifying suppliers and maintaining consistent supply, with strategy selection, and cost reduction making up the top three. You can see the full results in the infographic below:

While the results may not be surprising, they go some way to helping generate a consensus on the biggest challenge facing procurement. It’s now down to the profession as a collective entity to work out the best way to tackle these challenges.

One of the best ways of doing this is by collaborating openly, sharing knowledge, information, and lessons learned, and flexing our collective muscle in order to change the profession for the better.

If you have any comments, ideas, thoughts, or anything else you would like to share, please let us know in the comments below. If you have also had successes in dealing with any of these challenges, then we would love to tell your story!

Social media has enabled global collaboration on an unprecedented scale. But as attitudes towards the major platforms change, it’s actually niche social networks where the future lies.

In the interests of full disclosure, I do work for a niche social network. So yes, I am slightly biased. But stay with me, as you’ll see why the argument for niche social networks holds weight.

It might seem strange to talk about a more narrow focus when technological advancements have ensured that we can speak to anyone, in any corner of the world, at any time. But as the world grows, it’s important to ensure that you are speaking to the right audience.

We only have a finite amount of time during the day to engage with colleagues, peers and stakeholders, read interesting articles, and share our experiences with others. If you’re spending that time talking to the wrong people, then you are potentially missing out on great new opportunities.

Facebook-isation

Does this post look familiar to you?

How about this one?

These and countless others pop up on the major social networks on an hourly basis. And while you may think I’m talking about Facebook, these were actually lifted from LinkedIn in the past week or so.

Yes, that’s right, the world’s largest networking site is now beset with endless maths problems, selfies, family photos and quizzes. While presumably posted by well-meaning members, they serve to create friction on what constitutes an ‘appropriate’ post for LinkedIn.

And it doesn’t stop at the main network feed either. Speaking to procurement professionals at conferences and events in recent weeks, many have voiced the opinion that LinkedIn’s Groups and Discussions have become “spammy”.

There are a couple of possible explanations for this turn of events. The first is that, with over 300 million members, the network has grown too large while trying to cater for too wide an audience. The other is possibly that for many users, LinkedIn represents their entire social media presence, which is why there are Facebook-type posts appearing on it.

Both LinkedIn and Facebook aren’t going anywhere. They are great networks for connecting with people and, on a professional side, LinkedIn remains the place to be for marketers and recruiters. But for individual professions, the future lies in niche social networks.

Finding Your Niche

For many professions, relevant discussions, content and connections are lost in the noise on the larger networks. This was one of the primary reasons that Procurious was founded, and why it has grown as it has. People know that the site provides up to date, relevant content for procurement and supply chain, all in one place.

Procurious caters to the procurement and supply chain audience, but there are many others you can find, depending on your profession and interests.

Spiceworks – A network for over a million global IT professionals, providing content, and a free IT help desk for all its members.

Doximity – Over 60 per cent of US-based doctors as verified members, and possible expansion to overseas markets.

The list doesn’t end there, and there are countless others for a whole host of professions that are getting started every week.

Benefits of Niche

The benefits of a niche social network are along the lines of what I have said already. Joining one of these network allows you the following:

Connections – Surely the Number 1 aspect of social media are the connections we make. Niche social networks offer people who could really help with your latest issues or questions.

Content – Is a post about global politics interesting? Probably. Is it relevant to your next negotiation? Maybe not. Niche social networks offer articles relevant to your day-to-day work (although we do throw in the occasional off-the-wall topic to keep you interested!).

Learning – Whether it is eLearning, or learning by asking questions to other network members, niche networks are more likely to offer a more focused, better answer.

News Feed – What all the sites I have mentioned have in common is a collated news feed. This means up-to-date, relevant headlines, brought together in one place.

Events – An events calendar for all the major events for your profession. Quickly see what is near you and decide which one you want to attend.

By being able to access all of this in one place, you can spend less time wading through irrelevant posts to find good information, and more time connecting and collaborating with the right people.

So if you’re only going to use one platform for your social media activities, why not think about a niche network.